Choral Choir,Choral,SATB Chorus - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1495196 Composed by Todd Marchand. A Cappella,Christian,Christmas,Folk,Sacred. 4 pages. Con Spirito Music #1071742. Published by Con Spirito Music (A0.1495196). Jesus Christ the Apple Tree is the commonly used title for a poem published under the heading Christ compared to an Apple-tree in the August 1761 issue of The Spiritual Magazine, a London periodical for Calvinist Baptists.Above the poem in the publication are words of its author:Gentlemen,Having spent some of my vacant time in the composition of short pieces of Divine Poetry, have sent you the following, by way of specimen; which, if thought worthy of a place in your magazine, shall communicate the others regularly. I am your well-wisher and constant reader, R.H.R.H. is today believed to most likely be the Rev. Richard Hutchins, a Calvinist Baptist clergyman then serving in Long Buckby, Northamptonshire. The poem's first known appearance in a hymnal, and in America, was in 1784 in Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the use of Religious Assemblies and Private Christians compiled by Joshua Smith, a lay Baptist minister from New Hampshire. Because of its popularity in New England churches thereafter, it has often been wrongly attributed to an anonymous early American poet or to Smith.The poem may be an allusion to the apple tree in Song of Solomon 2:3 (As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste), which has been interpreted as a metaphor for Jesus. It also alludes to other descriptions of the tree of life in both the Old and New Testaments. Primitive yet profound, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree has been set to music by many composers, including a very popular setting by Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987). This new setting for unaccompanied SATB voices captures the rustic quality of the text with a rising-and-falling folksong-like melody, attractively harmonized. Voices realized by Cantamus (https://cantamus.app/)©Copyright 2024 Todd Marchand / Con Spirito Music (ASCAP). All rights reserved. For more sacred, folk, patritic, and popular music for instruments and voices, visit www.conspiritomusic.com

Choral Choir,Choral (SATB) - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1323225 Composed by Cornish folk tune. Arranged by Todd Marchand. Advent,Christmas,Folk,Holiday,Sacred. 10 pages. Con Spirito Music #911489. Published by Con Spirito Music (A0.1323225). “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen� is an English traditional carol dating, perhaps, to the 16th or 17th century. A manuscript, ca. 1650, contains a version with the first line, “Sit you merry gentlemen� and the refrain, “O tidings of comfort and joy.� The earliest known printed edition of the carol is a London broadsheet dated 1760, in which the first line is the familiar “God rest ye merry, gentlemen.� By the 19th century, the carol was well-known, with Charles Dickens referencing it in his 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol.The phrase “God rest you merry� in the first line is an archaic idiom meaning “God grant you peace and happiness.� William Shakespeare used the phrase “rest you merry� in his plays, “As You Like It� and “Romeo and Juliet,� both from the 1590s; but Dickens recorded the phrase as “God bless you, merry gentlemen� in A Christmas Carol.The tune adapted for use in this arrangement was at the time of its notation a wordless, nameless melody noted in 1905 by folk song collector E. Quintrell from the singing of a Mr. Boaden in Cornwall, England. The tune was sent to Lucy Broadwood, editor of the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, who decided that it fit the ballad, “The Maid in Bedlam,� and published the tune and text together. Gustav Holst later arranged the tune as Song without Words ‘I'll Love My Love’� in his Second Suite in F for Military Band, Op. 28, No. 2 (1911) and again as “I Love My Love� in his 6 Choral Folksongs, Op. 36 (1916). Set in F minor (Dorian), the tune brings a contemplative tone to the text, with the high point of the refrain being the subdominant Bb major chord on the word “joy.� The rich, dark timbre of solo clarinet (part included) on introduction, interludes, and ending adds to this tone. SATB voices (with some divisi on soprano and tenor), piano, Bb clarinet©Copyright 2023 Todd Marchand / Con Spirito Music (ASCAP). All rights reserved. For more sacred, patriotic, folk, and holiday music for instruments and voices, visit www.conspiritomusic.com

Choral Choir (SATB) - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1271624 Composed by Ivor Novello. Arranged by Marcus Martin. 20th Century,Broadway,Musical/Show,Standards. Octavo. 6 pages. Cornelius Edition (uk) #864013. Published by Cornelius Edition (uk) (A0.1271624). We'll Gather Lilacs, is a song by Welsh composer Ivor Novello which he wrote for the hit musical romance 'Perchance to Dream'. The stage musical opened at the Hippodrome Theatre in London's West End in 1945 and ran until 1948. This song was the most popular and enduring to emerge from the production. It was originally recorded by Muriel Barron & Olive Gilbert (1945) and has since been performed by many artists, including notably Anne Zieglerand Webster Booth, Richard Tauber, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra (for his album Sinatra Sings Great Songs from Great Britain (1962)Written as World War II drew to its close, the song describes the yearning of parted couples to be reunited. It evokes the joy they would feel when together once again, and the pleasures of the English countryside in spring with its lilac blossom. It is arranged here for SATB with piano accompaniment.  Orchestral parts and a full score are also available for purchase.

Choral Choir (SATB) - Level 3 - Digital Download SKU: A0.933611 Composed by John Stafford Smith. Arranged by Thomas Coker. Folk,Patriotic. Octavo. 4 pages. Thomas Rembert Coker Jr #3503513. Published by Thomas Rembert Coker Jr (A0.933611). In 2009 when Sanctuary Choir of South Main Baptist Church in Houston where I served as Music Minister was scheduled to sing the National Anthem for the Houston Astros baseball game, I carefully examined the several arrangements in our library and other resources. Finding nothing which met the simple, straight-forward criteria I was searching for, we created this simple arrangement. Since its addition to the music library it has proven very useful on numerous occasions for a variety of groups. About the National Anthem:The lyrics for The Star-Spangled Banner were written on September 14, 1814 from a British ship in the Baltimore Harbor where attorney Francis Scott Key had waited anxiously through the night as the twenty-five hour bombing of Ft. McHenry progressed. He had been sent to negotiate the release of an American civilian and then was held on board the ship.  At the dawn’s early light when the flag could still be seen indicating the British had not taken the fort, he jotted down this poem which on March 3, 1931 finally became the National Anthem of the United States. Interestingly, it was Robert Ripley who in November of 1929 drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon, Ripley’s Believe It or Not stating Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem. With the encouragement of John Philip Sousa, President Herbert Hoover signed into law the adoption of The Star-Spangled Banner to rectify this situation. According to the Smithsonian, the melody, written by John Stafford Smith, was originally titled Anacreon in Heaven. Anacreon was an ancient Greek poet known for his love of wine and love. The song had become the constitutional song of a London gentlemen’s club called the Anacreontic Society. Could this explain the wide range of the melody? By utilizing this tune to the moving text, this once merry drinking song took on a bold new and powerful meaning. Thomas Coker, August 27, 2015